Articles
Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland
A land of boiling mud, erupting volcanoes, lunar-like landscapes and astonishing modern architecture, where people believe in elves, fear outsiders and drive SUVs like maniacs. It’s all found in Iceland, where British academic Sarah Moss takes her family to live for a year when she takes a teaching position. In Names for the Sea, Moss
Linda Greenlaw’s ‘accidental parenting’ adventure a hard look at islands, teens
There’s nothing as satisfying as settling into a new Linda Greenlaw memoir and feeling like one is “on island” or at sea with her. But Lifesaving Lessons is very different and a bit shocking. Greenlaw tells how she becomes an accidental mother to a 15-year-old girl who had moved to Isle au Haut with an
Schooner: Building a wooden boat on Martha’s Vineyard
I can’t say that I’ve ever hugged a book before, but when Schooner arrived on my doorstep, I unwrapped it, took a long look, and…well, it happened. Writer Tom Dunlop and photographer Alison Shaw, both Martha’s Vineyard residents, take on the unique project of following the building of a wooden boat from design to launch
Skipjack: The Story of America’s Last Sailing Oystermen
St. Martin’s Press 2009 Hardcover, 372 pages, $25.99 A saga of the last working boats under sail It would be fair to say that Skipjack is as powerful as The Perfect Storm without the tragedy. Yet, the tragedy here is the decline of historic sailing dredge boats called skipjacks, which are barely still in use,
Time and Tide in Acadia: Seasons on Mount Desert Island
W.W. Norton & Co. 2009 Hardcover, 199 pages, $24.95 Solo wanderings in Acadia If you could never set foot on Mount Desert Island, Christopher Camuto’s book would take you on a tactile, sensory exploration of “a strong place…a violent place given the jumble of boulders…,” allowing you to feel “the vigor of this coast” while
Launching a Sailing Life at 60
I’ve wanted to learn to sail for a number of years and planned to go to sailing school someday. Since I’m about to turn 60, I thought I’d give myself an early birthday present and go to WoodenBoat School in Brooklin, Maine, for their course in Elements of Seamanship. I had done some sailing with
Woman Who Speaks Tree: Confessions of a Tree Hugger
About Time Press 2009 Paperback, 132 pages, $14.95 Do rocks like becoming stone walls? If you listen carefully enough, trees speak (or sometimes whisper) or even just stand there looking at plenty of human folly around them, according to Linda Tatelbaum. As a back-to-the-land homesteader, and later a professor at Colby, she and her husband
Fisherman’s Bend
Greenlaw’s latest sea tale a little leaky Let’s face it. There are plenty of us who want to read anything Linda Greenlaw decides to write. A friend of this reviewer-an outdoorsy radical terrain ski guy, who’s read all Greenlaw’s books-confessed that he had even read her cookbook and he likely has zero interest in cooking.
The Iambics of Newfoundland: Notes from an Unknown Shore
A Place Where People Can’t Fish Anymore
Boatstruck
Vineyard Haven, Martha’s Vineyard, August 2002 This is how a day unfolded — my expedition to wooden boat Mecca. The inn I stayed at looked toward the harbor. There, in my view, sat the Gannon and Benjamin boatbuilding shed — luring me ever since I got off the ferry. Got my takeout tea and scone